Caesar Rodney’s Lady Riders lacrosse team scored early and often in a 17-5 victory over visiting Smyrna Thursday afternoon.

Delaney Steele led an aggressive Rider attack with six goals on the day, along with two assists. CR’s Maegan Stewart had four goals and two assists, and Megan Webb added three goals and three assists. The Lade Rider outshot the Lady Eagles by a wide 35-18 margin.

Defensively, the Rider defense bottled up the Smyrna offense throughout most of the day, employing a stifling three-defender guard around the Eagles ball carrier.

The Riders scored the first goal of the game at 23:36, then added another goal about 12 seconds later.

The Eagles got on the board less than five minutes later, but CR responded by scoring four unanswered goals to pull ahead 6-1.

Caesar Rodney kept up its strong offense with crisp passing and outscored Smyrna 4-2 in the last six minutes of the first half to build a 10-3 halftime lead.

Both teams came out aggressively in the second half, and each side scored an early goal. But the Riders kept up the offensive pressure, controlled the period, and outscored the Eagles 7-2 in the second half to seal the victory.

The Lady Eagles drop to 5-3 on the season. Their next match will be on Monday, at home against Polytech at 4 p.m. They will also host Caravel Academy on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

Caesar Rodney improved to 4-4. The Lady Riders will play Archmere Academy on Saturday in Claymont at 2:30 p.m., followed by another road game against Dover on Monday evening starting at 5:30 p.m. Their next home game will be on Wednesday against St. Thomas More, starting at 4:15 p.m.